Space Policy

Space Policy: Bob Zimmerman whacks space pork in WSJ + Rick Boozer on Plundering NASA + more

Bob Zimmerman (Behind The Black) has a hard hitting op-ed in the Wednesday edition of the Wall Street Journal on the issue of NASA programs and projects like the SLS that are created for the benefits they give to particular states and districts rather than on how well they advance space development and exploration : Robert Zimmerman: No Liftoff for These Space Flights of Fancy: Both parties excel at feigning interest in space exploration for the purpose of justifying pork to their districts. – WSJ.com.

[ Update: Today Bob has a follow-up on his website about the SLS cost calculations: Pigs in space – Behind The Black.]

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Along similar lines, I thought Rick Boozer’s discussion with David Livingston on the Space Show on Monday went very well : Rick Boozer, Monday, 8-12-13 –  Thespaceshow’s Blog.

They focused on the issues raised in Rick’s new book, The Plundering of NASA: an Exposé, How pork barrel politics harm American spaceflight leadership, in which, as I mentioned earlier,  he presents the case that NASA’s SLS super heavy lifter project is a huge waste of taxpayer money.

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Other space policy items:

Update 2: A couple of items from Jeff Foust. One about proposed modifications to the regulatory regime for commercial spaceflight and one about NASA’s plan to procure a low cost launch for a nanosat.

Science and Technology

Sci-Tech: More response to the Hyperloop concept

Some further reaction to Elon Musk’s debut of the design of the Hyperloop mass transportation system (see earlier post):

Update: Alan Boyle gives an overview of the response: Why the Hyperloop transit system is far from a sure thing for Elon Musk – NBC News.com

Update 2: The true power source of the Hyperloop is revealed: New Super-Fast Transport System Powered By Passengers’ Screams – The Onion

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Carnival of Space #314 – Dear Astronomer

The Dear Astronomer blog hosts the latest Carnival of Space.

Education, Rockets, Space Science

Student experiments launched on suborbital rocket at Wallops Island

A Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital rocket was successfully launched today from NASA Wallops Island center with experiments built by students participating in the RockSat-X program run by the Colorado Space Grant Consortium.

Here’s an earlier article about the RockSat-X program: University Students Fulfilling the Space Flight Dream – NASA

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Sci-Tech: The Sun returns for Antarctic researchers

The sun has once again appeared to inhabitants of the French-Italian Concordia Antarctic research station: Morning has broken  – ESA

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This is the first sunrise at the Concordia research station since last May. The photo was taken by Antonio Litterio, one of the crew staying at the station for the whole hard Antarctic winter. He writes his ‘message to the Sun’ on the ESA’s Concordia blog about this significant moment: 

“It’s 11:10 on the morning of 10 August 2013, and the eastern skies are clear and radiant. I’m surrounded by diffuse light, azure blue in front of me, dark blue behind. There’s still no trace of you but all this anxious waiting is about to come to an end.

“Slowly, on the snow, I see the first signs of you as a band of fiery red light brushes every single ripple of snow between me and the horizon. I watch the light spread. As it approaches me, it broadens like a wide embrace; I look up and there you are, in a blaze of light. I’m incredibly happy. I lose myself for a moment: I only have eyes for you, I immerse myself in you and you reflect in my eyes to light up infinity. 

“My heart leaps and I murmur ‘Welcome back’. Before today, I could never have imagined how powerful you are in the mind and heart of someone who has been deprived of you for so long. Ninety days after our last goodbye, here you are once again in all your splendour.” 

Credits: ESA–A. Litterio

Follow the activities at the station via this blog: Chronicles from Concordia | Updates from the scientific research base Concordia.

Check out these sci-fi looking habitats in the Antarctic: 5 Amazing Antarctic Research Buildings – Popular Science

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